


Picking up the pieces

by TruePeluche



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Awesome Shuri (Marvel), Civil War Team Iron Man, Comic Book Science, Feels, Gen, Hurt Tony, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Tony Is a Good Bro, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-13 21:58:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15374247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TruePeluche/pseuds/TruePeluche
Summary: Being left alone to die in a cold Siberian Bunker by someone you once considered to be your friend usually isn't a good thing for anyone, however in the special case that is Tony Stark, maybe it'll bring somehting good.Follow the sheningan in wich everybody's favorite scientist/playboy/billionaire/philantropist/superhero/Irondad gets into as he tries to get better because the author is still bitter about CW and IW.





	1. Prologue : about Steve Rogers and how he decided not to do the smart thing

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched Infinity War when it came out and I was like, duuude, despite having Adolf Hitler's speech, cap's not a vilian, that's so messed up (i'm not exagerating this, NSDAP became a self sustaining single party because they accused the Bolchevik of burning the Reichtag -equivalent of the parlement- and declared that they had the moral high ground and were the only one to be trusted with safety and freedom of the people Steve Rogers wanted his team to become a self-sustaining entity disrespecting international regulations because of HYDRA inflitrating SHIELD and declared that they had the moral high ground and were the only one to be trusted with the safety and freedom of the people) so i started to read fics to see if other approved with me and apparently a lot people found that Steve acted like a self-righteous douchebag so now that i have some free time, i'm writing about how i think this should have played out if Tony had pulled his head out of his ass after Rogers's betrayal

Steve Rogers had been sipping his coffee while he was reading Natasha’s more than alarming report. He had been given Tony’s old psych eval that she had made during her days as Natalie Rushman joined with the actual report of his… non-friend latest development. And even that was enough for him to be shuddering. Severe case of narcissism with an ego that was the size of a truck, no regards for his loved ones if he was even capable of having those, self-destructive tendencies, mild aggressive behavior and the list went on and on and on… Natasha had concluded that while the Iron Man tech and SI resources could be useful, the man himself wasn’t anywhere something even resembling a hero, hell if he hadn’t knew better he could have believed that the document he was currently reading was the Red Skull’s official biography.

 However what was really alarming was the news, after leaving Wakanda two weeks ago he had sent Natasha doing her usual spy job on the team, both the Vision and colonel Rhodes status didn’t evolve - _he was still paralyzed_ whispered something in the back of his head- Tony however was probably more dangerous than ever. After a month of hospitalization, his latest press conference -a torture to watch- and an interview that had come the day after -also painful- was followed and appreciated by almost everyone, the billionaire was now liked by 78% percent of the Americans and 61% outside of the country. A show host had once joked that nowadays, if Stark was to give his political opinion, it would determine who would sat in the oval office. And while it was closer to truth that anyone with a little bit of common sense would have liked, what was really worrying was SI’s latest number that made Google’s look like a grocery store, more than ever Tony was filthy rich and had the people support behind him. Despite everything showing that he was a bad person he thrived in everything he could ask for, that alone would have proven that the society was wrong and that people weren’t good judge and that their opinion on the accords were all but the wrong ones.

Steve took another sip of his coffee and went on to the next page, this one too worried the captain. He quickly glanced over the page and this time Natasha’s writing was alarming of an immediate certain danger, he had bought lots of parts from his own factories and shipped them at his personal lab, what was worrying for everyone wasn’t as much as the fact that Tony had bought parts and raw material for him to rebuild an Iron Man suit, it was more about him buying enough to build a few dozens of them, everything pointed towards him repeating the Ultron screw up all over again, Steve wouldn’t be surprised if his team would be fighting a rogue AI with an Iron Legion at its disposal within a few weeks, poor Wanda had barely recovered form the loss of her brother because of Tony’s monstrous mistake and he was already trying to do that again, how self-centered could a man be.

He continued the next page with the traces of FRIDAY’s code all over the internet, pulling any bit of data towards the Compound server where it would be sorted out and stocked if judged useful. Steve had been firmly against the idea of Tony letting this thing up and running any second longer than necessary and even once Ultron had been taken down, the moron refused to shut down the damn abomination, arguing that it was more complete and intelligent than Ultron had ever become, which did nothing but increase Steve’s worry about the robot assistant/maid running their home. Nowadays however the AI had been more active than ever and its code was all over the internet, Natasha was already trying to reach the new SHIELD to do something about it but they said that their hands were tied because it wasn’t committing anything criminal and their scientific experts had no proof of it being dangerous, they probably were bought by Stark’s money and it pissed Steve off to see that they would once again suffer from the consequences of Tony’s refusal to see that Steve was right, people shouldn’t try to stop war before they even started.

the report went on for a few more pages, mentioning Tony communicating with a child in Rose Hill, somewhere in Tennessee  and a teenager in the Queens, a fake medical report that showed him sustaining unrealistic injuries during their fight in Siberia and that excused the month long vacation he had taken among others, a bunch of reports of him meeting with Dr Cho and several other health specialists mainly for Rhodes, the reports of those meetings were safely stocked in Stark’s server and couldn’t be reached by anyone.

He paid for his coffee while avoiding the gaze of the waitress and, after walking a few blocks further opened the door of the van in which the team had taken residence, in there waited, Wanda, Sam and Bucky, when King T’Challa announced that only Bukcy was offered aisle in Wakanda Steve had insisted on pulling the other super soldier out of his cryo-sleep, arguing that if he didn’t kept his promise to keep them safe, he had no way of knowing if his best friend would be safe, the Wakandan king had seemed a little bit offended by the remark but had simply stated that he had righted his wrong before letting them leave, they had sent Natasha, Scott and Barton scouting the situation of the USA with the team of government attack dogs and her reports had just came into his hand. As he entered the van where his team was playing a game of poker -Wanda was apparently winning- he held himself up, cleared his throat before starting his speech

“Okay guys, here’s the situation. I just received intel from Natasha about how the rest of the Avengers are doing at home and apparently their going to need us really soon, Tony’s latest AI has probably gone rogue -again- and he ordered the parts for multiple Iron Man suits, all proofs point towards a repetition of the Ultron fiasco.” He cut himself off, waiting for one of his teammate input and Bucky spoke up quietly

“If you’re right we should try to talk him out of this project, I’ve seen the news about Ultron when it happened and it seemed pretty bad” Wanda let out a laugh that summed up Steve thoughts

“’Pretty bad’ doesn’t even begin to cover it, because of him my brother died, though I don’t think he’ll care about what we have to say, he is too much of an egocentric bastard to actually listen to someone, we should just go on and take care of the guy before he cause more damage.” She took a cookie from the box that had been placed in the middle of the table, Steve spoke up again :

“yeah but it’s only part of the problem, even if we do that, our situation won’t change, I’ll go as far as predicting that with the current popularity and resources Stark has that it’ll worsen, it won’t do any good to show what is wrong, we could intervene a bit after Stark’s screw up to clean the mess for once, people will then see him for what he is and SI’s influence will weaken, then we can come back home and show everyone that the Accords are wrong and that they can’t charge us or else they’ll have to face more threats like this one” he concluded, Wanda agreed to the plan Bucky hadn’t shown any emotion but that was common occurrence, however Sam was frowning and clearly disapproving.

“I don’t know man, Ultron did a lot of damage, and that’s not even considering the fact that he wanted to drops a meteor-city, if it goes like that again we might not be able to make it stop, we should really try to avoid this happening in the first place.” Steve thought about the right words that would calm Sam’s worry

“Stark and his Accords are dangerous, they’re showing us as terrorists and will restrain our ability to act for future more dangerous things, if we let Tony cause a little bit of damage with his Ultron 2.0, we’ll be able to stop bigger and worse catastrophes later on.” He finished with a determined stare towards his team and received full approval from his team.

With everything said and settled, they started to pack their stuff, they were going to come back home for good.


	2. Friday : or the author has been too much on Detroit become human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I'm Friday, the android sent by Stark Industries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after playing DBH i've got somehting for robots discussing philsophy

Tony finally had the opportunity to sit down in his workshop after the mess that happened in Siberia and it never felt so good. Very soon the foreign peace that he felt in his workspace was cut short by DUM-E who brought him another one of his horrid green goo smoothies and after drinking it he reminded himself that he was quite short on time -his hospitalization had been too long, he had lost a whole month- and that he couldn’t enjoy this bliss, not with so much work to do in so little time. He pulled out his list of project for the five next months and decided to start working on the project that would render him the more efficient; probably.

When he had woke up from his week long coma and been announced… what he’d been announced, he started to schedule a bunch of projects and asked jokingly to his AI if there was anything she wanted him to do, she answered that a body like Vision’s one would be appreciated and he was hooked on this thing faster than one could say “how, why, when” and it appeared on his list.

“Okay Fri, we’re going to start working on your Christmas gift and then we’ll tackle another one.” He opened the folders ‘St Patrick’ and ‘Project Pinocchio’ where all of his idea had been written down.

“ _sir I believe that Christmas will only happen in six months and twelve days, you’re a little bit early_ ” Tony smirked, she had quickly become sassy and almost always had a quirky response, he was proud of himself for the design of her smarts.

“Well that’s too far away for me, you’ll have settle for an early gift, hope you’re not too disappointed. Okay first question, what do you want your new body to be, mechanical or biological ?” he opened a first draft

“ _I already experienced the feedback from mechanical bodies with your armors and when I downloaded myself in diverse systems, I am… curious about what it would be like within a biological body and that might help me work in complementarity with Vision, though it is only if you can do it Boss, you’ll be busy, developing everything from scratch might delay more important matters_.” Tony smiled at the words of his creation

“don’t worry about that, I had my time to think about how it could work, I’ve got that little buddy of mine with a yellow rock in the forehead and he explained to me that an AI felt the same as a human and that interacting with it wasn’t different so he thinks he would be able to download you in a kitten if you wanted.” He pulled the 3D schematics of the Cradle and started to implement a DNA modifier for the reconstructed tissues, he wasn’t a biology experts but had discussed with the Doctor Cho the possibility of regenerating cells that had a genetic default by replacing them with cells that hadn’t, she had recently finished worked out the kinks of the theory and Tony was working on the practical aspect right now.

“ _I don’t think a kitten would require you working on the Cradle, however I’d like to work out the DNA code and cell growth program for myself, I don’t want you to make me look like a famous person just for your entertainment when others will come across me_.” The genius pouted, betrayed by his buzzkill of an AI and started to work humming some AC/DC while assembling the holographic new Cradle. After maybe twenty hours of mindlessly solving the problems one by one his attention was pulled back by the voice of FRIDAY

“ _Why did you became Iron Man boss, it seems illogical to me, you could have had someone else to do it and just sticks to building the suits, you have the resource to gain absolute loyalty from numerous trained fighters and yet you put yourself in danger.”_ Tony was surprised by the question, it wasn’t the first time he heard it but coming from his creation, it was unexpected though he nonetheless answered. 

“Well I firstly got out of the Ten Rings comfy cave in the Mark I and after that I worked on my own on the Mark II and Mark III since I didn’t knew who to share that with. After that I saw images of the Ten Rings using SI weapons to attack Gulmira, it was Yinsen hometown and I felt… responsible, both for what was done with my tech and for what was done to Yinsen’s legacy, and from this day on I realized that, all the blood I had shed as the merchant of death, all those mistakes, this used to be my purpose and I needed a new one, a better one, by being the pilot I felt like I was really useful, like I finally learnt what I was meant to do with my life… putting everything I had to help others.” He re assembled the part of the holographic projection of the new version of the Cradle and ran the verification program.

“ _I think I can relate, from what I understood you find it fulfilling in the same way I find it fulfilling to execute the tasks I was built for?_ ” Tony laughed at the analogy and calculated if the numbers for the different forces were coherent as they were displayed.

“yes in a way… alright that seems completely good, we’ll continue this conversation in the medical wing,” the engineer grabbed his Starkpad with the loaded blueprints, his toolbox and the part before walking to the medical wing. He kneeled in front of the regeneration cradle and started to tinker “is there anything else you want to talk about, I’m pretty good at not sprouting too much nonsense when working.” A moment passed  before the AI resumed their conversation.

“ _I don’t know… do you ever wonder if it’s worth it, to be a hero, in my case being there by your side is bringing me wisdom, resources and questionably good company among others, but your purpose seems to cost you way much more than what you gain, your name had been dragged through the dirt because of your action as Iron Man, your team turned against you because of Ultron which was only partially your fault and probably unavoidable all things considered and you were betrayed by your teammates we aren’t counting the multiple time you almost died, your girlfriend left you, and there is also the self-loathing that comes from Colonel Rhodes injury. All of this happened to you because you are Iron Man, is the trouble really worth what you gain from it._ “ the billionaire cursed as one of the chip broke between his fingers.

“Hmm, well there is something important that can be gained from it, the people who saw me fight for what’s right will do the same for others and if everybody works together with the same objective in mind well, it’ll make my job a lot easier otherwise if I bury my head in the sand I won’t be able to look at myself or even sleep at night for that matters, I’ll be responsible for all those things that I didn’t prevented from happening. In fact, I can’t say that being Iron Man looks like a great thing to me, it just seem to be the lesser evil.” He connected the now bigger microprocessor to the DNA modifying before screwing back the metal panel over the electronics.

“ _I_ _have finished working on the growth program, if you’re over with the modification we can start building my new body”_ the scientist went sitting down on one of the hospital bed before answering

“yeah, just scan the Cradle before, just to be sure I didn’t messed it up and call Viz, we’ll need him to transfer your coding into this human brain that you’ll grow.” He took the coffee thermos that laid down in his toolbox and started to drink the horrible smoothie that DUM-E had prepared.

“ _I’ll do that boss, though I recommend a nap, we shouldn’t have anything to do for the three next hours, Dr Cho wants you to keep resting as much as possible_.” The man groaned before slamming his back on the bed, enjoying the bouncing of the mattress

“all right, I’ll pretend not to be alarmed by all the other things that I won’t do while I’ll sleep. night night sweetie.” As he slowly drifted to sleep he heard his creation answer him with what he imagined to be warmth

“ _sweet dream boss_.” And the world disappeared around him

{loading delay(1,08.10^5).exe…}

             Vision phased through the wall and entered the medical bay, he had been informed by Anthony of his project of giving a body to FRIDAY, a fragment of memory from a previous existence showed him that he had once wanted the same thing. He had agreed to monitor the transfer and use his infinity stone power to look into the AI’s mind to be sure of her intent and, would she want a biological body do the transfer himself.

             It should have been expected and yet it took him by surprise to see his creator curled up and shaking on the bed, panicking a little bit at the sight he froze for a split second before rushing by his side and trying to shake him awake. “Anthony you’re having a bad dream, please wake up…” he was interrupted by a repulsor shot at his chin and looked down to see the glove watch pointed at his head.

             “Shit, I’m sorry Viz, I’m so sorry, fuck… you aren’t hurt, are you?” the android smiled at the concern and felt something warm in his chest.

             “You don’t have to worry about that my friend, I’ll be completely fine… I believe I was called here to help with FRIDAY’s body, do you want to push it back at an ulterior date, you seem to be troubled.” Tony stood up and with a dismissive wave of his hand answered

             “Nah, don’t worry if I had to stop working after each nightmare, I would probably never get anything done.” Now it was Vision’s turn to be concerned but he tried not to show it, having the man talking about his feeling was healthy and he didn’t wanted to have him withdrawing onto himself because he caused distraught by one of those expression.

             “Well then I suppose that we should get started, FRIDAY, are you ready?” Tony looked the reading of the artificial body on his StarkPad and if we ignored the fact that she was held up in an artificial coma the body had no anomaly.

             “ _I am as ready as ever. Boss, thank you for doing all this, you’re a wonderful Santa._ ” The joke had both the android and the man to chuckle and Tony gave Vision his tablet with the chip plugged.

“Well here goes nothing you’ll do your unexplainable magic that I’ll totally explain one day and my baby here will rise again and I’ll get to shout ‘It’s alive!’ all that jazz” Vision chuckled once more and started to reach for the mind of FRIDAY, the program was like a brain, an intricate ensemble of wiring that corrected itself and he drew those specific pattern toward the parts of the brain that corresponded to memories, coordination, and all that, he eventually opened a channel of communication between the chip and FRIDAY’s new brain.

“I’m picking up brain activities from location that correspond to zone that requires a previous activities in a first place like the hippocampus or the VLPO, my baby’s dreaming right now, should we wake her up ?” Vision smiled at the childlike wonder that he felt in Tony’s voice.  

“You can indeed wake her up now that I’m over with the transfer, it should be fine.” And it was obviously fine, after a few minutes of putting the waking up command the Cradle opened letting out a young girl with a green and gold dress, she seemed in her late twenties -while she only was a year old when he thought about it it’s something strange- she had a pale skin, green eyes full of intelligence, red hairs and the rest of her features strongly reminded both Vision and Tony of Virginia. She looked around, seemingly lost and confused.

“I have taken the initiative to give you clothes, I hope you don’t mind it” Vision’s remark pulled her out of her contemplative state and she tried to speak up but no sound came out of her mouth.

“ _I’m sorry, I’ve been distracted, though I must thank you for your assistance, could you hand me a glass of water_.” The voice had came out of the room’s speakers and it was… bizarre, Tony complied nonetheless.

“Alright I’ll go get you that baby, you’ll need anything else.” Friday stated to fidget with her hands -she had hands!- before answering

“ _That would be all boss, it is very strange to be… human, It will take me some time to adapt_.” Tony handed her a glass of water and answered

“Don’t worry we’ll be with you all along the way.” And despite having no guarantee of this, Friday believed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I consider Tony's AI to be Sapient but not sentient and thus they think but they don't feel -save for Vision who has the mind stone- and thus having friday questionning his actions allow him to see how much of his doing is guided by his emotions, it is a really fun dynamic to write that I wanted to explore before i had to let my Detroit become human fangirling destroy it with David Cage's sentient robots
> 
> i mainly used things from the movie like the why does he go ironmanning, he tells pepper that it is his pupose, as for what he gains from it the moral influence thing is made up but since he is driven by guilt for most of his character arcs I think it's safe to assume that it's also what he gains from being Iron man
> 
> Next chapter we'll have everybody's favorite character -dramatic drumroll- Shuri!


	3. Shuri or why kidnapping is really a bad idea especially when the person you kidnap is a pair of badass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hostage situation 101

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo, i've made this chapter more pleasant to read I think, tell me if i still got to work on that I'll probably edit the two first chapters

             This was clearly annoying, Shuri hadn’t planned to be captured and while she was used to it happening often each time she went outside of Wakanda’s borders.

She had other things she wanted to do after testing the jet herself to drop Everett on American soil and go to the movies perhaps.

 Unfortunately the plane had been struck with and EMP and filled with sleeping gas not even a minute after she landed.

She had woken up in a tiny room -seemingly an office in an abandoned factory- almost entirely in the dark, she was tied up to a chair with Ross still sleeping by her side and a camera in front of them, she had sworn profanities at the camera but if anyone heard her, nobody had said anything.

             She was in the middle of sharpening her chair’s foot to cut her bonds when someone finally entered the room, a white tall brunet with a bitchy air on her face and a smile as fake as Santa Claus.

“You better be telling me that you were mistaken on who you caught and let me get the hell out of here or else I’ll swear you’ll regret it.” The chick raised unimpressed eyebrows before answering.

             “I work for a group of scientist called the Advanced Idea Mecanic or AIM for short and we’re trying to recruit, brilliant minds like yours to work on technology for the future” Shuri deadpanned at the gall of that woman.

             “Usually when you recruit you send a mail or something, I don’t want to be rude but one does not simply kidnap to have positive response.” She smiled inwardly at the joke and the chick smiled with fake sweetness before answering.

             “I understand your concern though even if you don’t appreciate our methods, in the end you will comply.” The princess spat in the woman’s face.

             “You can have it but that’s all you’ll get.” The kick in the ribs was totally worth the pissed look on the bitch’s face, plus now that she was down she had the opportunity to continue sharpening the chair’s foot.

             “Okay everyone, we’ll start recording in a minute, wake up the CIA dude, I think he’ll be better off in front of camera to read our demands.”

Eight armed henchmen entered the room and started to wake Everett with a bucket of water and she snarled at the bastards, they better hope she doesn’t free herself otherwise they would regret not having the counter terrorist teams coming to kick their asses. Genius coughed up as he woke up

“ What the fuck ?” he looked around him confused and noticed the armed goons in the room and Shuri sprawled on the floor. “What’s going on ?”

“Bitch here wants us on TV to say that they took hostages and wants me to work for her. Doesn’t know your government doesn’t negotiate with terrorists like her” She received another kick to the stomach.

“well you weren’t supposed to tell about the work part, we’ll have to deal with that leater though I’m glad we neither are terrorist or dealing with American government. Anyway here’s your text, don’t worry we’ll let you keep it for the recording.” Bitchy went behind the camera and plugged a laptop to it leaving them to their devices.

“it’s stupid, Wakanda doesn’t have that much vibranium and I’m pretty sure Stark won’t endanger millions just to save the two of us.”

 The first part wasn’t true but Shuri knew what he was trying to do: having the terrorist give up on their demands and release them. One of the goon put the gun on Everett’s throat and Shuri’s was became even more impatient to pull his guts out. 

“Leave him alone, his concern is justified but you see I’m pretty sure Dr Stark wouldn’t let himself be guilty of the death of a man, no matter the alternative as for the vibranium of course it’s too much, though when my demand won’t be met by the wakandan authority I’ll fake kill Princess Shuri and end you, that way I’ll have a new brilliant mind added to our research team, Stark’s work and all of Wakanda’s vibranium, with a little bit of chance they will even turn against each other for causing that failure.”

 Shuri shuddered a bit at the thought of what she would do if she succeeded and she started to cut the thick ropes that bound her wrist on the now cutting edge of her chair.

“Well, it’s a good plan I have to admit I’m disappointed that you forgot to mention the part where I break free and shove this chair so deep into your throat that you’ll permanently have something to put your sorry ass on.”

And while the Princess tried to think about how she could technically put that threat to execution the guards shuddered at her fierce outburst of rage and tried not to come to close to her as they tried to help her up

“You better hope that you’ll be arrested soon because otherwise she’s really going to kill you and knowing her, it’ll probably be slow and painful.” Everett tried to back her threat up but the goons were obviously more loyal to whatever payroll they were on than they were afraid of her, at least that meant that she would have the opportunity to kick their asses.

“Well, we’re ready, I’ll record and I’ll shoot a bullet in your legs for each take that we’ll have to do.” She had said that with certain happiness in her voice, Shuri tried not to bolt at her for that, she had to wait until their guards were down to attack.

“I’m Everett Ross, CIA operative and I have recently been captured, a group of individual. I along princess Shuri of Wakanda will be tortured and killed on live television in twelve hours if the demands of our captors aren’t met, those are for Doctor Antony Stark to transfer on a crypted line all of his research and other intellectual properties and for Wakanda to deliver a hundred tons of Vibranium to an undisclosed location without the intervention of any governmental authorities, please- he took a pause to dramatically roll his eyes- don’t let us die.”

Bitch gave a big smile entering a bunch of commands on her computer

“hey, congratulations, you did it on your first try ! Even professional actors don’t always pull something like it, I’m impressed. It’ll be on every major news channel and radio station within thirty minutes, we’ll just have to wait it out, oh and before I forget, I want at least three guards to constantly look over our prisoners, they look like their up to something, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d have to kill them because of an escape attempt.”

The head of wakandan design group cursed inwardly before deciding to play the waiting game, she had a plan and at one point, she would put it to execution, take their gun and shoot her way out, she just had to be patient.

{loading sixhourslater.exe}

The guards took shifts but eventually they kept being wary and in sufficient numbers, by basing herself on her stomach Shuri assumed that about six hours had already passed when all hell broke loose, the sound of an explosion had rang out and the one of the guard pulled his talkie from his belt.

“we’re under attack, kill Ross and shove his body outside, we need them to back off, Stark has yet to send us the data. Over.” Shuri’s blood ran cold and she spat the sonic grenade that she had kept in her mouth trying to think of a solution quickly.

“copy that, Over” the sentence had snapped Shuri out of her panic and she knew what to do.

She threw the grenade she had timed for one second and stood up to shield Ross with her body, Wakanda couldn’t afford to lose such an ally, she couldn’t afford to let him die, she was sure her brother would understand, her last thoughts were about how she missed the opportunity to see one last of those American movie Baba liked so much. The shots rang out and then nothing.

Literally nothing, no last pain, no going to the spiritual plane to see her ancestor and no absolute nothingness.

She opened her eyes only to see that something – Iron man- had appeared out of nowhere in an orange an grey armor to shield her and block the shot, the response was a quick series of energy blasts that knocked the guards against the wall of the tiny room.

“Thank you so much, how did you get there and why did you attack before knocking out those idiots, and how does the…” she was cut off as, before her a woman, a pale redhead with green eyes in military clothes, stepped out of the armor and started to speak while she took equipment from the unconscious guards

“we’ll talk about that later, this room is surrounded by enemies so it’ll be hard to clean the place, we have a Quinjet in stationary flight, we make a breakthrough towards it, Princess Shuri you get in the armor, Agent Ross you and I will take their rifles and bullet-proof vest.” Shuri felt anger rise up.

“I don’t know how to pilot this thing and I won’t cower up inside the tin can while you guys get shot at by those fuckers !” The redhead looked at her for a second before resuming her looting

“you won’t have to pilot the armor and I’m telling you to do so because it’s the rational choice, I’m not going to cause a diplomatic incident if I get shot, Agent Ross here is a trained CIA agent thus less likely to get hurt in a firefight and would certainly have difficulty to enter the armor plus your people will probably miss their princess if your popularity is anything to go by.” before Shuri could protest the ‘Colonizer’ cut her off

 “I agree with the lady, it’s tactically the best decision and I couldn’t look T’Challa in the eyes if another member of the royal family got hurt because of my incompetence.” His tone had gone soft and he looked at her with resolve in his eyes.

She sighed, nodded at the redhead and the armor wrapped herself around her, if she wanted to be optimistic she could tell herself that it was a unique opportunity of industrial spying on the second best weaponry in the world -her works was above all the others-.

“Alright I’ll go do some more recon you can cut his bond and help him suit up.” With that the woman left the room and the armor on its own provided a blade that Shuri used to cut off the ropes.

When she was over she started to hear gunshots and screams, she might not be able to see it but hearing them suffer was a good thing.  

“Vision to Friday, Iron Man and I are engaged by the enemy and requires assistance, do you copy?” a British voice had come through the armor comms and Shuri panicked at the information and tried to stay calm

“Friday if it’s who I think it is, isn’t exactly disponible right now, she’s shooting down bad guys, to get us out of here “ another goon stepped into the room and the guy shot at her but the bullet didn’t even bruised her before Rossy put a bullet in his head.

“Oh that’s unfortunate, well, when you will be safe, tell her that her assistance would be a great deal of help. Over.” They were in NYC -if they didn’t took a car trip- why did everyone had an accent.

“Friday to Shuri, I cleared the path you should be good to go, though pass first, they didn’t had strong explosives or other weaponry that could harm you, over.” 

“it’s Shuri, the Vision dude wants you to help him once we’re on the jet oh and just so you can know apparently there is an enemy heading towards us really fast.”  The armor started on its own to sprint toward the plane’s location, the HUD that displayed the map and the position of the enemies was really convenient, perhaps she could start working on a similar tech once she’d be back home.

“I know I heard and don’t worry about that I got you covered.” As she and the agent were running something dropped through the factory ceiling and she could see through the dust a man with what seemed to be red wings and two handguns.

She immediately stopped and shielded Ross while pointing her hands towards the man, she didn’t knew how to use the weapons or even if they were activated while she piloted but she felt the need to protect the agent and gamble that the man would scram off once she’d have weapons pointed at him.

“drop your weapon birdbrain and maybe I’ll be merciful towards your ass” the words had come with obvious determination and an Irish accent. Friday was standing on top of stairs with a body sprawled on her acting as a shield while she was pointing her gun towards him

“I’d like to see you try you criminal, I’ll have you know that-“ gunshots cut him off and the armor grabbed Ross before diving towards the exit off the building.

“Last warning asshole” the woman still carried herself professionally but the newfound venom in her voice showed clearly that it was personal. They quickly reached the plane and the armor left Shuri alone before disappearing -cloaking the scientist realized- probably going back to its user

“Shit, we’ll land the plane somewhere safe and I’ll go back to help them, they clearly are in need of reinforcement.” Everett snorted before sitting on the pilot seat.

“I was about to say the same thing and I think we can agree that neither of us wants to see the other on the battlefield, we both wants to be here so I propose a compromise I pilot and you blow them up with the Quinjet’s weapons.” Shuri scowled deeply before deciding to grab the command of the jet’s weapons.

“if you die I’ll kill you, you hear me Genius”  she then aimed at the winged guy who had shot up out of the factory lacking a wing and successfully hit him with a lightning bolt, she would have rather had the guy blown up but this was good enough.

“how come you are so good with your aim, you were about this impressive with blasters you trained a lot?” As they arrived over the battlefield she could see the actual Iron Man a green and pink dude who she supposed was Vision fighting alongside Friday -armor nowhere to be seen (pun intended of course)- against Barnes, the captain and the rest of their merry band of douchebags save for Lang,

She had hated their stay in Wakanda and felt like they had been using her brother’s generosity to get what they wanted, she guessed Bridbrain was Wilson she had never saw him with his gear and it was less than impressive.

“Simple geometry Sherlock, even if you’d be more of a Watson to me, I’m drawing plans since I’m six, after some time I learned to estimates angles with the naked eye and project on different plans, that comes in handy when shooting.”

She tried to shoot the at Rogers but he hid behind some kind of shield that looked like it was made of energy, he still received a kick in the guts from Friday who sent him a few feets backwards.

“Makes sense, hey what are Okoye and Nakia doing here.” And she indeed saw them teaming up to fight Barnes who was holding his own against some of Wakanda’s fiercest warriors.

“They were supposed to be your extraction team along with four SWAT agents who would have gone in while Boss and Vision raided the front door just after I knocked out the guard in your cell, unfortunately Rogers and his team of assholes just barged in without scouting the place, localizing and securing you.”

The voice of Friday had unexpectedly come in the mic, how could she still find time to talk when fighting -and apparently matching- against the Black Widow who had come to defend Rogers wasn’t something they wanted to question.

“okay now that makes sense, you want me to take down Barton, his cover shots are a pain in the ass.” The man had been firing arrow from a rooftop toward each member of the team and being outnumbered they hadn’t anyone to take care of him and Stark had seemingly started to sustain damage between those shots and Scott shrinking and exploding out of his armor

“Nah I got it, I’d rather have you assisting Vision, he is very reluctant to use violence, and if it keeps on going this way he might get injured.” Ross started to fly the plane towards the pink dude.

He was indeed getting slammed against the walls, dragged by a red mist which came from the small redhead’s hands, without hesitation Shuri took a shot at her and while the missile was blocked by red mist Vision was now able to disengage the fight.

When she looked at Barton she could see him being swallowed up by the orange and silver armor that then shut itself down, leaving him trapped within a four hundred pounds coffin.

“Shit Nakia is harmed and Friday is getting her ass kicked, they’ll need medical assistance can you guys land, Vision will provide you cover.” Stark’s concern for his teammate and a total stranger was somewhat touching and Ross obeyed, started to lower their altitude.

Unfortunately that meant that Roger’s team was taking it as an opportunity to run away, the Ant-guy had disappeared, Okoye was dragging Nakia toward the plane leaving Barnes the opportunity to run, and Tony was carrying Friday who had been knocked out by Steve and Natasha who had begun their retreat, she could also see that the witch had flown on the rooftop and was tearing Friday’s armor pieces by pieces.

“they’re getting away, should we pursue them, I mean we have a fully operational jet, it would be easy to launch an attack.” Tony who had placed Friday on a medical bed just shook his head.

“Don’t bother, the mission was a success, no thanks to them and they are injured people on this plane, if they start attacking we won’t be able to all jump out of it and I’m not even talking about how crowded the city is, we wouldn’t even have the opportunity to attack safely. Let’s go home.” And with those words said, Ross headed the plane towards the Avengers compound.

{loading threedayslater.exe}

             “Alright, your ID had been checked, you’re free to go, Miss Shuri is waiting for you in the common room, it’s the door on your left, then straight to the end of the hallway.”

Karen thanked the receptionist for her help and went to see the Wakandan princess, she had managed to pull an exclusive interview for the Bulletin about the hostage situation she had witnessed just three days ago with the help of Ellison’s connections, she had been invited to the Avengers Compound -god it was intimidating, interviewing a princess into a superhero facility-

Moved by her curiosity had started parallel reconstruction of the scene on her own, based on the footage, and the witness she previously interviewed she would compare this to Shuri’s interview and write her article based on that.

             “Oh you’re here, I didn’t expect you to be early. Oh and by the way I loved your article on Hammer tech, it’s a masterpiece and their PR are probably still praying Satan for him to kill you.” The voice had come from the upper floor and while she turned around to see the Wakandan Princess in formal clothes and with a cup of coffee in her hands.

             “Well they were complete assholes so making their lives difficult wasn’t too hard, hopefully I hope you’ll help me write an article about as pertinent as this one.” Shuri laughed easily  before sitting down on the couch in front of Karen turned her phone off and leaned toward the journalist

             “Alright ask away, what do you want to know.” Karen took her notebook and prepared herself to write down the answers

             “to have a good start, could you tell me what happened that day? ” Shuri looked amused before answering

             “Well, a good friend of me and my brother Everett Ross, had been to Wakanda and I offered to drive him back to the US but when I arrived the plane was struck with an EMP and filled with sleeping gas, after that I fell asleep and when I woke up, I was in a warehouse, Evie was tasked with reading the statement you probably saw on TV and then the rescue mission arrived.”

             “I need to ask, it’s Captain Rogers faction who arrived before the other Avengers then got attacked by them, do you think the other team of Avengers or the normal counter terrorist should have been present since they endangered the rescue mission.” Shuri shook her head.

             “The building had been already infiltrated by a member of the real Avengers and they were preparing the extraction team composed of Wakanda’s elite force and SWAT members that should have entered the building to get us out of here once the path was clear and we were secured.” Karen was bubbling with excitement, she had exclusive news and they weren’t anything like what the public thought  

“What happened instead wasn’t as safe, when Steve Rogers charged without precaution, the men that were guarding us were ordered to kill agent Ross and we only owe his survival to Rescue, the soon to be newest recruit of the Avengers, after that the three of us had been exposed unnecessary danger and were attacked by ex-Avenger Sam Wilson. Despite their goodwill, Steve Rogers and his team only sabotaged the mission.”

Karen was left speechless by the revelation. She had thought that operating within law borders had its limit and that surely Rogers was right to refuse his field of action to be reduced but this was putting him in a new light and she had to admit that if the accords allowed the Avengers to cooperate the authorities, they could be way more efficient.

             “The Bulletin readers will be interested with that, otherwise Wakanda had played a major role in pushing forwards the Accords, do the royal family wants to involve itself more with the Avengers Initiative or do they consider the work to be finished.”

Shuri snorted and tried to muffle her laughter before regaining her composure

“We’ll continue to think on the text, I enjoy saying that just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved and that we should continuously try to better whatever tool we have at our disposition, the accords haven’t met their marks yet but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t prepare as much as we can so it never will” those were wise words

“as for the involvement of the royal family, if T’Challa continues to work on the political side of things, I have been invited to take part in the Avengers initiative research team and from now on I’ll be working with Dr Stark, Dr Cho and other famous scientists in the compound labs, it'll be a great opportunity.” This was definitively going to be one of her best article.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go, Shuri is probably one of my favorite character and it was so much fun to write her  
> Don't hesitate to comment it's good to chat with you guys


	4. James Rhodes : or with great power, come lots of paperwork but the author don't tell you that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey comes back at the Compound and get updated on the latest news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is very little plot and a lot of character developpemnt

His physical therapist had expressed the concern that Stark and his work would put him out of a job and James could see why.

It took two weeks for him to be able to fully walk with the braces but now, despite being semi-paralyzed down the waist, he could sprint faster than before.

The technological advance that were the braces was going to help millions but he felt his heart warming up at the thought that it had been invented to help him specifically.

             And now the idiot who invented that was grinning proudly at him as he stepped -almost without difficulty, this shit was miraculous- out of the car.

             “Platypus, I think I’ll never be prouder of any of my creations than now.” James grinned

             “I hope this is the last time I hear you say those words because I remember you saying exactly when DUM-E baked you an inedible cake” his best friend reddened with recollection and shame as they walked inside the coumpound.

             “I’ll have you know that the doctor had first diagnosed that the food poisoning came from the pizza.” The argument was weak but it was more for the sake of the pleasant bantering than anything else

             “Anyway we both know I’m right, though can you update me with the latest news.” James had been advised to stick solely to physical therapy while he recovered and avoid anything job related, the problem was that his job was usually a billionaire all over the news and social medias.

             “Well, SI started to commercialize the braces and I’ve began to work on other kinds of prothesis in the workshop, it’s really fun to dissect how your biology works and how you can build your tech while adapting to it…” and he continued to talk about this for five whole minutes

James had gone to MIT for a reason so while biomechanics wasn’t his field he could easily understand that Tony had began ranting about it more than necessary, trying to stir the conversation away from another topic

             “Anything else I should know about” the colonel cut him off Tony visibly winced.

             “well there have been… other development that I’m not sure I want to talk about, though you’ll press for them and I’ll end up caving in, so I’ll just save us both lots of time.” He took a deep breath.

             “First of all Friday asked for a body and we built her one, she’s been a sweetheart and filled her week between hanging out with Pepper and working with me in the desk or in the workshop, we watched a movie two days ago.” He closed his eyes and sighed

             “Then the Avengers were asked for yesterday for a hostage situation, we had systematic clearance for those on US soil, so we tracked down the hostage taker, started to plan the mission Rogers and his crew barged in, screwed up the op and went out when we started to kick their asses.”

             James cursed. Loudly. For what might be three whole minutes, Tony gave him a satisfied smirk when he was done but avoided his gaze for a split second.

             “Something else you don’t want to talk about ?” Tony’s  gave met his own and before his friend opened his mouth, James knew he wouldn’t like it.

             “I might have asked Friday to start running the NA algorithm.” James grabbed Tony by the shoulder.

             “What the hell are you thinking about, you’re just that eager to make new “friends” and get stabbed in the back all over again, I saw you in the hospital after Siberia, it wasn’t pretty, you can’t just keep on giving your trust if it’s what people do with it.” His friend put a hand above his own and James knew that the brunette was confident, that he knew what he was doing

             “Listen, I’ve learned my lesson, I won’t be so generous again and let other people walk over me and all that jazz” so far so good

             “But I can’t just give up on the Avengers, on my own I’m not powerless however some more back up would have been appreciated with the Mandarin mess and Natasha for all of her flaws was necessary in avoiding casualties at Stark Expo” Rhodey cringed but saw the point

             “Alright I got it, so what are you going to do about it.” Tony stopped in front of the coffee machine and picked coffee for both him and James  

             “Well I’m going to find enhanced and create some kind of network to ask for help when things go south, they would be like… consultant, and in case of global threat like the Chitauri invasion we could coordinate a global effort that would make a real difference you know?” he hated it when Tony was right.

             “Okay, that seems more sensible, though if some of them wants to be permanent members of the team, you got to ask me.”

             “We’ll put it to a vote or something, I’m trying to build a real structure and rules all this kind of thing”

             “Damn and here I thought you’d never become responsible.” He was glad that Tony had changed -in good ways- so much since MIT and yet kept being the good friend Rhodey always had.

             “Don’t think you’ve won yet honeybear, I’ll still blow up thing in my lab at the first occasion.” They both let a laugh at that last comment.

             “Anyway that’s the news, oh and I recruited another minion, she’s probably in the lab right now, she’s Wakanda science princess and she’s really awesome, and evil, but awesome.”

             “please tell me this one at least is over twenty-one?” Tony shrugged

“She’s got a degree, why do you assume that everybody but me on the science squad is a minor?” James gave him a single disbelievingly raised eyebrow.

“You graduated from MIT when you were seventeen, and between Peter and Harley...” the inventor sighed as they reached the penthouse kitchen

“Well if they’re starting early and they manage to pick up all my skill and knowledge, just imagine how good they’ll be once they’ll be really old and start with their own generation.” James nodded and was thoughtful of such things for a moment

“We better hope they’ll be more responsible than you are, otherwise they’ll probably cause another apocalypse.” Tony put a hand on his chest in mock offense

“It was only once, and you know that I really wouldn’t mind another Ultron with some better programming it could only kill people who are stupid, assholes or both, this would be great.”

“Not so great, you would probably be its first target.” The sassy remark has came on its own but the self-depreciating smile and nod that came in response left James uneasy

“Well then I should probably try to make them responsible munchkins, oh and before I forget, I cleaned up Rogers old desk, it’s yours now.” James frowned at that last piece of information

“Erm, it’s the biggest one and It has the holographic conference thing for emergency meetings with the council and all that jazz, shouldn’t you be the one to have it.”

 “I don’t think so, since you’re the team leader, it’s yours to have, I mean, if you want we can work out something for you to have it closer to your quarters or something but, until now you reside here.” James scowled as he understood the game his friend was playing

“Look I know you want me to get better and all that crap but I don’t need you to give me your pity and try to make me look like a soldier again.”

“When we were both in the hospital and you started your PT with the braces I built for you, you told me you’ve went on the field for 138 combat missions, and each of these flight made you better I don’t need to make you look like the military guy who leads other on the field and keep the politicians at bay when they oppose saving people, it’s already who you are.” The argument was pretty good but there was another problem

“Okay maybe but what about the symbolic aspect, I mean you can’t expect people to be fine about a new guy, not one of the original avengers to step up and take that role.” Tony shook his head and looked at him with determined eyes

“Perhaps the public think you’ve yet to prove that you’re a hero, but I know you’re mine, as far as I am concerned there isn’t anyone in the world who I would trust more to look after the defenseless than the guy who saw a scrawny kid at MIT and thought, damn! This kid could use a friend regardless of everything else. It’s the kind of guy who I can trust to make the right calls and that’s the guy the public will see.”

James sighed, maybe it was pointless to argue with the man if Tony wanted him to be the new head of the Avengers who was he to deny him

{loading.timeskipofthreehours.exe}

He had been then granted the position of leader of the Avengers initiative and one of the Councilmember -the one from Nigeria who Tony had eased into the idea of a new better team- had joked that with the iron patriot suit, he had worn the red white blue better than Rogers.

Serves that asshole right.

He was now in his gigantic office Friday by his side helping him through the paperwork, while his time as a leader started smoothly.

 “Alright, I’m done with my contract and since I’m now officially the Avengers leader, it’s my job to do your interview for you to become an official member, the transcript will be given to the council and if they have further inquiries about you they’ll probably schedule an audience with you.”

Friday looked up from the stack of paper she was currently reading and seated herself on a chair in front of the desk

“I’ll try to answer the best I can, I’ll have the interview recorded and furnish the transcript.” James smiled at the enthusiasm shown by the young AI

“I am Friday, it’s the first November and I’m here to be interview about my candidateship for the Avengers team”

“alright first question, when were you born.” This one was easy enough but the answer came unexpected

 “depends on what you mean by born, the program that was put in my brain was created on march the twentieth of two thousand and six, I’ve been initialized for the first time during the Ultron incident and I’ve acquired a body six days ago.”

The new leader nodded and decided that this exhaustive answer would satisfy everyone.

“Okay, next question, are you enhanced, if yes what information do you want to disclose to the Council about that.” The woman tilted her head thinking about it for a second

“When constructing my body through the means of the Craddle I was given free reign by Dr Anthony Stark for the cell growth, I therefore used some of the data I had stored in memory about Steve Rogers’s DNA to replicate the effect of Dr Erskine super-soldier serum and the Extremis virus in order to avoid being… powerless when a situation similar to Siberia would arise.”

James took a sharp breath and images of Tony on a bed just in front of his flashed in his mind, making his chest ache and it took all of his willpower to regain composure

“Those enhancement means that I have a rapid healing factor, added strength and exothermic manipulation I have joined a document with tests results, I also pilot a suit similar to the Iron Man armor that I’m not going to disclose infromation about, to avoid reverse engineering.”

             “Alright, that’s good, we can skip over the medical records and lawsuits precedents, same for past employments… Why do you want to join the Avengers ?” green eyes stared at him intently

             “mmh, it’s the logical thing to do, when I went on field to help Miss Shuri it felt like the right thing to do, maybe it’s because of my programming, or maybe it’s just a gut feeling but helping others is fulfilling and joining the Avengers is how I have the opportunity to help the largest number of people.” Huh, helping as much as they could, he would have to pull that one for the press conference speech.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i needed to develop both Rhdoey and Tony about the recent occurences, and while Tony lost some confidence in his social skills it means that he now looks up to Rhodey in a better light than ever and at the same time Rhodey doubt his ability to keep on being part of the team with his injury, he isn't just a normal military dude among gods and monsters and supersoldier, he is less than the average civilian and start questionning all this. 
> 
> i also felt like i had to stick close to cannon stuff, Rhodey who tells his unimpressive story during the party in AoU is showcasing him as a character who deem extraordinary situation that are normal for the others this chapter show a developpment of this aspect of him. At the same time, Tony appeart to think that he isn't good enough as Homecoming shows us he feels like Peter should have been better than him ect, and him refusing a position of leader is basically him giving up at improving himslef and placing someone who he feels is already good enough.
> 
> for next chapter i'll probably focus on everybody's favorite traumatised marines Pete Castilglione

**Author's Note:**

> this is told from Steve's perspective so the narration is going to have his biais when describing shit, and i needed a reason for them to actually leave wakanda and try to kick the New Avengers team ass
> 
> this prologue isn't yet featuring Tony but lay a basis for what willl happen later, btw next chapter will be about everybody favourite Irish sounding AI : Friday


End file.
